GOP’s populists flex muscles with wins on Capitol Hill

Populist and union-friendly Republicans are flexing their muscles on Capitol Hill, notching wins in the House despite furious pushback from traditional free-market conservatives and opposition from GOP leaders.

Two key developments came in the House last week in the form of a rail safety bill getting added to a major transportation package and a petition reaching enough signatures to force a vote on a major union priority. In each case, Republicans joined with Democrats to advance the measures.

The wonky policy fights are part of a larger war over the future of the Republican Party and the ideology underpinning President Trump’s MAGA movement as it has made inroads with unions.

One letter from a coalition of leaders on the right supporting the rail safety bill addressed the ideological divide roiling the party.

“While conservatives have long opposed regulation intended to coerce businesses to achieve unrelated policy goals, we have also long maintained that there is a place for protections to ensure the proper functioning of the marketplace, such as antitrust enforcement or mitigating negative externalities,” said the letter, which was led by Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project, and first reported in the Daily Caller.

Trump and the White House had gotten personally involved in a fight over the Railway Safety Act. The bill was championed by Vice President Vance — a favorite figure on the populist right — when he was in the Senate after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment that released hazardous chemicals.

Despite prodding from the White House, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee did not include that bill in the base text of a major surface transportation reauthorization bill. Industry groups and traditional free-market allies balked at the requirements in the legislation, including codifying a requirement for at least two people to operate a train, remove time limits on inspections and increase requirements for trains........

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